PARAKLETOS

 As I write this morning there are many things that deeply bother me about this current election year. Like the deep levels of Xenophobia that I see and hear. I think that sometime it would be great to do a study on how throughout American history we have “feared the other” and what that has led us to do. I agree with John Lewis when he talks about this fear consuming all of us if we don’t watch ourselves. There is a lot more that I could and should say but what is really heavy on my heart this morning is all the current talk about “socialism” and “spreading the wealth around.” Just before the last debate Obama was talking to “Joe the Plumber” about taxes and at the end of the conversation Obama talked about those who have a lot “spreading their wealth” to those who don’t have. That idea has lead to a great firestorm, and for the average American to be as mad as hell about that comment makes sense to me because Americans have fully bought into the idea of capitalism. But what really gets me is when a sister in the Lord like Sarah Palin also believes that the idea of “redistribution” is an evil idea. And to be honest I am deeply concerned the lack of attention to Biblical or Christian tradition when it comes to these issues of money and the poor. I have come to believe that most of the Christianity that I have been a part of is more influenced by capitalism then by what our faith says.
There is what I mean. How do we read a Bible filled with:
1) The Sabbath- “This establishes a primal pattern: good work is followed by Sabbath. It is important to not that this cosmic Sabbath is not for the purpose of resting in order to work more (that is an American Protestant approach); there is no Monday in the Creation narrative. The purpose of this Sabbath is to enjoy the world forever, which is why it is “blessed” (2:3), just like the creation itself (1:22,28). The Sabbath thus captures the double theme of creation story: abundance as the divine gift, and self-limitation as the appropriate response. ( from “The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics” ) it is this self-limitation that capitalism wants nothing to do with, but in the face of such great poverty and environmental disaster we must start to embrace.
2) The Manna Story- as the people of Israel become a people the one of first lessons that God teaches them is that they are only to take what they need for that day. If they take just what they need then all will have enough and there will not be spoilage. But if they take more then what they need the manna spoils. This is a theme that then is all throughout scripture and can be found in many traditions: That wealth that is stored up spoils, but wealth that is shared brings life to all.
3) The Jubilee- this is the great tradition of very 50 years all debts being cancelled and the land going back to the original owners. In Luke 4 Jesus calls on this tradition and says that he has bought a never ending Jubilee. In the Jesus way Jubilee is all the time.
4) In the Exodus story and the creation of Israel we see the creation of a people who order their lives in such a way to create space for the widow, orphan, and stranger. So when they harvest they harvest in such a way that those who don’t have are allowed to have. This is the point that Joe the Plumber just does not get, we don’t keep all that we make, we allows others to have. And I think that it is important to note that this was not seen as an act of charity, but the widow, orphan and stranger where owed that gain and not to let them have it would have been robbery.
5) The Prophets who told Israel that they where “eating the poor” because of the ways that the poor where being treated. The message that the Prophets where saying over and over again was that the rich must change their lives and live in a way that the poor are given what is due them.
6) Incarnation- God is poor
7) Jesus’ story of the rich man who had to build bigger barns. His life was taken because of his over consumption.
The story of Zacchaeus – salvation comes when he gives away this money back to those he took it from. He had not broken the laws of the land, but he had broken the laws of God. Th same goes for those of us living in a capitalistic culture.
9) The birth of the church- Acts 2:45 “… and distributed it to whoever had need.”
10) Paul’s reordering of communion to be a practice for all. Communion had become only something for the wealthy, and Paul says that this foundational practice of who we are as the people of God must be a practice of equality for all.
and still believe that redistribution is a bad idea?
And that is simply an elementary treatment of the scriptural tradition. We also have the Christian tradition of our founding fathers and mothers who have lived radical lives of giving up their wealth and living with the poor. One example would be John Wesley who later in his life gave up tea because he could not justify the cost, so he drank hot water. John believed deeply in the need for us to live simple lives and give all that we can for the care of those in need. During John’s time he came to see the underside of the industrial revolution. At that time some where gaining great wealth while others where being impoverished to create that wealth, I would argue that in many ways we live in a very similar world with globalization.
There are also the words of Jonathan Edwards who said that the clearest thing in all of scripture is the call for Christians to care for the poor. We have the lives of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Claire, Mother Theresa. The teaching of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., James Cone, Cornell West and so many others I don’t know where to stop. I have to believe why this kind of talk is hard for us to hear, or is so foreign to us is because we have been so over taken by the values and assumptions of capitalism. Who owns, what they own, who much they own, how long they own, how do they gain ownership have all been shaped by the values of the economy that we find ourselves in but not the faith that we claim to follow. And if I read scripture right that is nothing but old fashion idolatry.
And as hard as it might be I have come to believe that this false god must be killed, so I am trying to kill it my life. If you really want to join me in killing this god then I would welcome you read the following, but realize that this is a journey that will take work, time, energy, Socratic courage (courage to ask hard questions), and a lot of willing to learn (these ideas are not learned over night they are care complex issues that require complex answers. Something that we are not use to in this sound bite world.) -The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics by Ched Myers -Coming Together by Curtis DeYoung - Any thing by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr - Video “The Corporation” - Video “Everything is Spiritual” by Rob Bell
PS: All of this and I did not even mention the practical need that we have for redistribution. We currently live in a country where the average CEO makes by noon on Jan 1 what the average worker will make the whole year. Read: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond

A few weeks ago I got invited to a pre-opening showing of a movie called “Call and Response.”  I know every little about the movie expect that Cornel West had a part in it (Dr West has been a reading mentor of mine, I highly recommend reading the book “Race Matters) and that the movie was about Slavery.

Watching that movie was one of the most moving spiritual experiences that I have had in a very long time.  It is not that the movie is so well written or produced; it’s that the movie is saying something, it’s speaking truth, and that it’s calling people into action.  The issues itself in not a new one to me, I have known for a few years now that the Global economy has been really really good to some but to others it has been a very dark and evil force.  In our world today we have 27 million slaves.  And I say we because Americans consume about 30% of the world’s resources, so a lot of the goods and “services” that this slave labor produces is for us.  We might not be the direct slave owners but we have to start putting ourselves in a place where some of the responsibility falls on our shoulders.  This issue of slavery is not the “other” problem, it is our problem and we must have the courage to face up to that fact and then be willing to do something about it.

And when I talk about slavery I have not including the Millions of people who work for pennies a day.  I am talking about those people who work for NOTHING, those people who are treated like a piece of property.
I have come to believe that most of us who are living in the affluent West have created a fantasy bubble around ourselves where the world looks pretty good.  We might let a few things break into that bubble every once in a while, but for the most part the world is a good place and it is getting better.  But what I have learned over the last 2 ½ years living in my neighborhood is that that world is a fantasy.  Things like this “housing crisis”, is not just about people losing their homes, it is about people fighting for their lives, people doing everything that they can to have a place to keep them warm at night.  Just last weekend, two blocks from here, two men and a boy where killed because they where running a generator in their basement to keep the electricity on in their house.  From the way that I understand it, they where getting kicked out of their house and they where doing everything that they know to stay in the house just a little longer.  When you know stories like that the “housing crisis” takes on a whole neither meaning.

That is exacting what this movie starts to do for us.  It moves the issues of slavery from a “slight inconvenience” to an issue of great urgency.

Here is what I would ask of you check out the info at www.callandresponse.com.  See if the movie is playing somewhere close to you and go watch it.  If it is not playing close to you wait for it come out on DVD and then rent it.  Then once you have watched the movie ask yourself, “If I where one of those slaves, what would I want people like myself to do about it, what would I want churches like mine to do about it, what would I want businesses like mine to do about it?”

 

The feeling of a nation

Must be quickened;

The conscience of the nation

Must be roused;

The propriety of the nation

Must be startled

The hypocrisy of the nation

Must be exposed

And its crimes against God and man

Must be denounced.

Frederick Douglass, 1852